J. R. Williams published a syndicated one-panel cartoon on 3 March 1939. It was part of his "Out Our Way," which began in 1922 and had a readership of 40 million by 1930, when a newspaper promotion compared him to popular poets Eugene Field and James Whitcomb Riley; at its peak it ran in over 700 newspapers. The panel showed two blue-collar workers listening to an inventor describe his labor-free pick; one says to the other, "No, he’s in the same fix as th’ rest of us. It’s called progress. I just learn about half the traffic rules an’ they change ’em. You can’t beat progress. You’ll always be a day late an’ a dollar short." Since then the idiom has been ubiquitous, for example in the Tom Waits song, :Nighthawk Postcards":
There's a blur drizzle down the plate glass As a neon swizzle stick stirrin' up the sultry night air And a yellow biscuit of a buttery cue ball moon Rollin' maverick across an obsidian sky As the busses go groanin' and wheezin' Down on the corner I'm freezin' On a restless boulevard at a midnight road I'm across town from easy street
With the tight knots of moviegoers and out of towners On the stroll And the buildings towering high above Lit like dominoes or black dice All the used car salesmen dressed up in Purina Checkerboard slacks And Foster Grant wrap-around, Pacing in front of Earl Schlieb $39.95 merchandise
Like barkers at a shootin' gallery They throw out kind of a Texas Guinan routine "Hello sucker, we like your money Just as well as anybody else's here" Or they give you the P.T. Barnum bit "There's a sucker born every minute You just happened to be comin' along at the right time" Come over here now
You know, all the harlequin sailors are on the stroll In a search of "Like new," "new paint," Decent factory air and am-fm dreams And the piss yellow gypsy cabs Stacked up in the taxi zones waitin' like Pinball machines To be ticking off a joy ride to a magical place
Waitin' in line like "truckers welcome" diners With dirt lots full of Peterbilts, Kenworths, Jimmy's and the like, and They're highballing' with bankrupt brakes, over driven Under paid, over fed, a day late and a dollar short But Christ I got my lips around a bottle and My foot on the throttle and I'm standin' on the corner Standin' on the corner like a "just in town" Jasper, on a street corner with a gasper loo
J. R. Williams published a syndicated one-panel cartoon on 3 March 1939. It was part of his "Out Our Way," which began in 1922 and had a readership of 40 million by 1930, when a newspaper promotion compared him to popular poets Eugene Field and James Whitcomb Riley; at its peak it ran in over 700 newspapers. The panel showed two blue-collar workers listening to an inventor describe his labor-free pick; one says to the other, "No, he’s in the same fix as th’ rest of us. It’s called progress. I just learn about half the traffic rules an’ they change ’em. You can’t beat progress. You’ll always be a day late an’ a dollar short." Since then the idiom has been ubiquitous, for example in the Tom Waits song, :Nighthawk Postcards":
ReplyDeleteThere's a blur drizzle down the plate glass
As a neon swizzle stick stirrin' up the sultry night air
And a yellow biscuit of a buttery cue ball moon
Rollin' maverick across an obsidian sky
As the busses go groanin' and wheezin'
Down on the corner I'm freezin'
On a restless boulevard at a midnight road
I'm across town from easy street
With the tight knots of moviegoers and out of towners
On the stroll
And the buildings towering high above
Lit like dominoes or black dice
All the used car salesmen dressed up in
Purina Checkerboard slacks
And Foster Grant wrap-around,
Pacing in front of Earl Schlieb
$39.95 merchandise
Like barkers at a shootin' gallery
They throw out kind of a Texas Guinan routine
"Hello sucker, we like your money
Just as well as anybody else's here"
Or they give you the P.T. Barnum bit
"There's a sucker born every minute
You just happened to be comin' along at the right time"
Come over here now
You know, all the harlequin sailors are on the stroll
In a search of "Like new," "new paint,"
Decent factory air and am-fm dreams
And the piss yellow gypsy cabs
Stacked up in the taxi zones waitin' like
Pinball machines
To be ticking off a joy ride to a magical place
Waitin' in line like "truckers welcome" diners
With dirt lots full of
Peterbilts, Kenworths, Jimmy's and the like, and
They're highballing' with bankrupt brakes, over driven
Under paid, over fed, a day late and a dollar short
But Christ I got my lips around a bottle and
My foot on the throttle and I'm standin' on the corner
Standin' on the corner like a "just in town"
Jasper, on a street corner with a gasper loo